Jersey Overseas Aid invites islanders to have their say on the next 50 years of volunteering

Jersey Overseas Aid (JOA), the island’s official, publicly-funded relief and development agency, is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its overseas volunteering programme, Community Work Projects.

As part of this celebratory year, JOA is hosting an event led by a panel of international and local experts who will be sharing their views about the future of volunteering.

Taking place at the Pomme D’Or Hotel on Thursday 28th April, the event is open to all islanders and is free of charge to attend. The event will deliver an evening of insightful and engaging discussion, as well as the sharing of memories and stories from Jersey’s volunteers who have undertaken JOA CWP projects over the last 50 years.

“We are incredibly proud that the CWP volunteering scheme has reached its 50th year and even more thrilled that we continue to be oversubscribed with applicants for every project. It says an incredible amount about the people of Jersey that so many Islanders are willing to give their time and their skills. I am immensely proud of those who volunteer for the programme,” said Jersey’s Minister for International Development and Chair of JOA, Deputy Carolyn Labey.

“We also want to make sure that our programme continues to deliver lasting benefits for both the communities in which projects are undertaken and for our volunteers. Through this event we have the opportunity to share ideas about the future of volunteering and discuss how we can make sure Jersey continues to deliver maximum benefit from its CWP programme for the next 50 years,” added Deputy Carolyn Labey.

The panel will also discuss the outcomes of several pieces of international research and how this will steer and shape JOA’s volunteering programme over the coming decades.

The panel:

• Alice Chadwick El-Ali, Senior Research and Policy Officer, UK Collaborative on Development Research
• David Jordan OBE, Chairman, Sand Dams Worldwide,
• Philip Goodwin, CEO, VSO International
• Deputy Carolyn Labey, Jersey’s Minister for International Development, Chair of the JOA Commission and former CWP volunteer
• Mike Haden, Founder of Jersey charity, Hands Around the World Jersey

Since 1972, JOA has facilitated parties of volunteers to work with communities in developing countries for up to four weeks. As well as bringing lasting benefits to poor and vulnerable people, these Community Work Projects serve to raise awareness in Jersey of global development issues, and also play an important part in Islanders’ own personal development. Many have led to lasting links with communities all over the world, and several local charities were born from volunteers’ experiences abroad. By 2021 over 1,000 volunteers had completed over 100 projects in some of the world’s poorest communities.

In 2022, JOA hopes to send two cohorts of volunteers to undertake Community Work Projects. The first group will be flying out to Kenya in June to work with JOA’s partner, Sand Dams International, building sand dams in the South of the country. The second group will be travelling to Nepal to work alongside local charity, the Gurkha Welfare Trust Jersey, later in the year.

As part of this celebratory year, JOA called on Islanders who have taken part in a Community Work Project to get in touch with their memories, photos and videos, which will be shared at events taking place throughout the year. The team would love to hear from anyone who would still like to share their memories (enquiries@joa.je).